We all know how Reach will end. It is written. Bungie's involvement in the Halo franchise will terminate with its very beginning: the doomed defence of humanity's major shipyard and birthplace of the Spartan program. Six brave Spartans will fight... and suffer... and fail... and yet by providing the most complete Halo experience to date, Halo reach is easily one of the finest games on the console.

The singleplayer campaign broadly sticks to Halo's classic routine: large sandbox arenas interconnected by labyrinthine corridors and mid-range encounters. However, the new sense of immense scale and overwhelming odds bring an entirely . The skies teem with enormous aerial battles. New warthog rockets shred the battlefield. The air thrums with gratuitous particle effects, fountains of luminous blood and ridiculous visual feedback. Battles are bigger, more brutal and infinitely more intense than ever before... and Bungie has succeeded in creating the feeling of being in the middle of a globalwar rather than disconnected little skirmishes. It's cinematic whilst promoting player choice. Visceral doesn't quite cover it.

The campaign is made all the more enjoyable by the new gear, enemies and AI. The new weapons (including the Covenant concussion launcher and handy warthog rocket batteries) provide more combat options than ever before- and the armour abilities are a neat take on deployable equipment. They're not quite powerful enough to dominate a battlefield, but clever use of a decoy hologram to lure out snipers or a sprint to reach an important weapon can easily turn a certain defeat into a narrow survival.